Comics Retrospective
Comics Retrospective was an old-fashioned, cut 'n' paste fanzine self-published by Tony Ingram from mid 2003 to late 2006, running 34 issues in total (although #34 had extremely limited distribution). It featured a mix of historical articles on British and American comics and comic creators, with subjects ranging from the lives of Ken Reid and Alan Moore to characters from 2000 AD such as Robo-Hunter or American superheroes like The Defenders, to newspaper strips such as Jane and Garth or actual comic titles including Star-Lord, Whoopee! and Tornado. Originally bi-monthly, it later switched to (more or less) monthly frequency and gained a new cover logo designed by Comics International editor Dez Skinn. From issue #7 onwards, it gained its first regular feature, The Avengers Files, a serialised rundown of Marvel Comics' long-running Avengers title. The number of issues of Avengers covered varied from issue to issue, but the bottom corner box reflected the characters prominently featured. From issue #9 onwards, Comics Retrospective gained its second regular feature, Axa's View from the Vault, which saw former newspaper strip character Axa introduce and narrate (supposedly in the first person) brief articles on old British characters and strips. The conceit was aided by images of Axa taken (without authorisation) from old Axa comics by her creator Enrique Romero. Additionally, most of the back covers contained classic cover images. Much of the material in the early issues had first been published in the apazine Rainbow Bridge in the 1990s (see also Cosmos, Inc.). Later issues also included material from other contributors, including Mario Botte (who drew cartoon versions of Marvel and DC characters as mini pin-ups) and the late David E. Wiggins, who regularly reminisced about his life-long love affair with comics. Comics Retrospective spawned numerous oversized summer and winter specials dedicated to subjects such as Marvel UK, Marvelman, Doctor Who comics and the New Eagle. A short-lived sister title, Marvel Retrospective, ran for just two issues. Additionally, there was a Best of Comics Retrospective spring special reprinting selected material from the first nine issues; a second print of this had slightly different contents to the first, featuring the Robo-Hunter piece from #1 instead of the Captain Britain piece from #2. Comics Retrospective eventually ceased publication after Comics International, which had provided its main source of advertising, stopped being published on a regular basis, causing it to lose the majority of its audience. Cover gallery cr1.jpg cr2.1.jpg|''First cover of #2'' cr2.2.jpg|''2nd print cover of #2'' cr3.jpg cr4.jpg|''First cover of #4'' cr4.2.jpg|''Second print cover of #4'' cr5.jpg cr6.jpg cr7.jpg Cr8.jpg cr9.jpg cr10.jpg cr11.jpg cr12.jpg cr13.jpg cr14.jpg cr15.jpg|''First cover of #15'' cr15 colour cov variant.jpg|''Colour cover variant of #15 (scarce)'' cr16.jpg cr17.jpg cr18.jpg cr19.jpg cr20.jpg cr21.jpg cr22.jpg cr23.jpg cr24.jpg cr25.jpg cr26.jpg cr27.jpg cr28.jpg Cr29.jpg cr30.jpg cr31.jpg cr32.jpg cr33.jpg cr34.jpg summer 2004.jpg|Summer special 2004 winter 2004.jpg|Winter special 2004 besofcr.1.jpg|Best of CR Spring Special 2005 besofcr.2.jpg|Best of CR Spring Special 2005 (variant) winter 2005.jpg|Winter special 2005 spring 2006.jpg|Spring special 2006 summer 2006.jpg|Summer special 2006 winter 2006.jpg|Winter special 2006 mr1.jpg|Marvel Retrospective #1 mr2.jpg|Marvel Retrospective #2 CRCOVER1.jpg|Cosmos, Inc. Category:Small Press Category:Tony Ingram/Creator